Welcome to our feature highlighting the numerous Colorado tech companies that make cool stuff. These little snippets are intended for readers to explore the technology being made right here. One company at a time, of course.

Noisapp

Dude! No more messing with headphones or volume with Noisapp. Meant for snowboarders and skiers, the motion-controlled music app keeps volume up when you’re moving and lowers it when you stop so you can have a pleasant conversation with your fellow mates.

Music and snowboarding go hand in hand. Until you’re done with the run and you have to take your hands out of your gloves to turn down the volume to hear your friends. Of course, there’s an app to fix that and it happens to be from developers in Fort Collins who go by the business name of Stream^N Inc. Noisapp is a motion-controlled app that adjusts the volume of music on your smartphone based on movement. Going downhill? Music plays. Pause? Music volume decreases so you can actually hear what your friends are chattering about. The app also lets users configure volumes, fade speed and motion thresholds. And it should work with most sports, though probably not chess. Bonus: Noisapp is available for iOS, Android and Windows Phone devices. It’s $1.99 but an ad-supported version is free.Headquarters: P.O. Box 2394, Fort Collins, CO 80522Founded: 2014Founders: Michael Kabatek, CEO, and Michael DeAngelo, vice president of business developmentEmployees: 2Contact: 970-639-0420Home on the Web:noisapp.com

Are you a Colorado tech business in the consumer world? Submit your information at dpo.st/coinfo for consideration.

When we last checked in with Sphero, the Boulder robot toy maker was struggling to make sure it had enough of latest product to meet demand.

It didn’t.

Its Star Wars BB-8 droid quickly sold out almost everywhere after its Sept. 4 debut.

But stores have stocked up on the new droid featured in the upcoming “Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens.” And I’ve heard from several retailers that are willing to part with a Sphero BB-8 in exchange for the regular price of $149.99.

Claire Tindall, Sphero’s senior director of marketing + communications, offered an udpate: Yes, BB-8 is available. Yes, the company continues to manufacturer more overseas. No, Sphero can’t share how many BB-8s have sold because of some fussy non-disclosure obligation with Star Wars owner Disney.

“Sales are still hot and I think a lot of that has to do with it being a product unlike anything else,” Tindall said. “We’re expecting we’ll be in line with what we saw on launch.” Read more…

Noted: Boulder’s Zayo Group Holdings announced an all-cash agreement Monday to acquire Allstream Inc., Canada’s fourth-largest telecom company that serves business and public customers. Zayo, which builds and manages fiber to office buildings in the U.S. and Europe, offered $465 million in Canadian currency, or about $348 million U.S.

Zayo was eyeing Allstream’s 9,000 route kilometers of metro fiber in Canada’s top cities of Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa and Calgary. The fiber connects to 3,300 on-net buildings, which is Zayo’s prime business model of focusing on connecting office buildings.

Allstream’s nearly 1,500 employees will join Zayo’s nearly 2,000. The company will refocus the Canadian operation but details won’t be shared until after deal is completed by the end of March 2016, a Zayo spokesperson said Monday. (UPDATED 10:41 a.m.)

According to Zayo, Allstream has approximately CAD $600 million in revenue and adjusted EBITDA (excluding restructuring charges) of about CAD $100 million.

Welcome to our feature highlighting the numerous Colorado tech companies that make cool stuff. These little snippets are intended for readers to explore the technology being made right here. One company at a time, of course.

DispatchHealth

Forget urgent care. DispatchHealth drives to your home with a doctor or nurse. The Denver healthcare provider is available from 9 to 9 daily — for $195 a visit. Call them via phone, web or app

Doctors who make house calls are back! And how convenient for us, DispatchHealth is headquartered in Denver. The company’s physicians and nurses drive a Toyota Prius C (or travel with the South Metro Fire Department) to a patient homes. While you should probably still get thee to the ER for major trauma, think of this service as an alternative to urgent care. The company says it’s suited to treating common ailments like the flu, plus handle minor fractures, suture or offer advanced blood laboratory testing. DispatchHealth takes insurance or charges a flat $195 per visit and is available from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily — including Thanksgiving. The startup recently raised $3.6 million in seed funding from investors that includes EMP Holdings. And now, you can either call for home service, go online or use the brand new iPhone app.Headquarters: 3455 Ringsby Ct. in DenverFounded: 2013Founders: Dr. Mark Prather, CEO; Kevin Riddleberger, CSO; Dr. Phil Mitchell, Medical DirectorEmployees: 25Recent news: The new iPhone app is out in time for any Thanksgiving headaches. An Android app is expected by the end of 2015.Contact: 303-500-1518Home on the Web:dispatchhealth.com

Are you a Colorado tech business in the consumer world? Submit your information at dpo.st/coinfo for consideration.

Not bad, considering there were “over 600 of the nation’s most promising developers and designers” at the Princeton University event. At least 72 teams submitted a project.

College seniors — computer science major Krista Horn and Electrical Engineering majors Jessica Gillan and Jade Irizarry-Swordy — spent the weekend building a DC power supply to harvest the free vibrational energy given off by a Pebble watch and feed it back into the device to charge itself.

The all-female Team PowerGrab placed 2nd in the HackPrinceton Hackathon last weekend. Between the two guys are team members Jessica Gillan, Krista Horn and Jade Irizarry-Swordy.

Sprint’s new 50% discount to lure customers from rival services is for a limited time and prices are all over the place.

A new push by Sprint to stop hemorrhaging customers targets the competition, including T-Mobile. Sprint said Wednesday that it would cut the monthly price in half for Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile customers who switch to Sprint.

But Sprint’s new prices are all over the place — depending on what company a customer switches from. Nobody appears to pay the same price even for the same plan. And, as some noted, Sprint offered this last year, although it didn’t include T-Mobile customers in the past.

For example, a T-Mobile customer who pays $50 for service plus 2 GBs of data would now pay $25 for the same plan at Sprint. But for a similar plan, an AT&T customer currently paying $55 for a 2 GB plan would now pay $27.50. Sprint, meanwhile, charges $30 for its regular 2 GB plan. Confused? Here are Sprint’s examples: Read more…

But just a bit more popular is The Blaze TV, the online channel of conservative radio and TV host Glenn Beck. It is ranked No. 9. (see the top 10 chart below) in a report by Parks Associates, a market research firm.

“The Blaze has been around for several years, giving it ample time to build up a following,” Sappington said. “In addition, The Blaze caters to a niche audience, which allows them to focus their video service offering and promotion on their target market.” Read more…

With the purchase, which is expected to close before the end of the year, ViaWest gains a data center in Allentown, Penn., which is where INetU has its headquarters. INetU also leases space at non-ViaWest data centers on the East Coast and in Europe. It employs 110 people.

ViaWest offers hosting in the cloud but has been expanding into add-on services for its customers. Buying INetU gives ViaWest access to new customers, plus the East Coast data centers.

ViaWest employs 260 employees in Colorado, and 521 employees in the U.S.

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Welcome to our feature highlighting the numerous Colorado tech companies that make cool stuff. These little snippets are intended for readers to explore the technology being made right here. One company at a time, of course.

LockState

Falling somewhere between old-fashioned door locks and the modern mobile-app-controlled ones, LockState uses Wi-Fi and buttons to help people fortify their fortresses and offer keyless entry. LockState, which offers residential versions, honed in on office buildings, apartment dwellings and resorts because you can’t expect guests to download yet another app! LockState relies on Wi-Fi to help owners manage online who can get inside a building by creating temporary codes. They can quickly assign — or delete — codes for new employees, recurring maid service or other people who need entry. And if you really want to know, your system will text you when codes are used.Headquarters: 1325 South Colorado Blvd, Suite 400, in DenverFounded: 2004Founders: Nolan Mondrow, CEOEmployees: 30Recent news: Just joined Airbnb’s new Host Assist program to help hosts schedule keyless-entry codes for guests.Contact: (877) 254-5625Home on the Web:lockstate.com

Are you a Colorado tech business in the consumer world? Submit your information at dpo.st/coinfo for consideration.

Golden’s HomeAdvisor added another piece to its national expansion: Google.

The two companies announced a partnership Friday that uses the massive search-engine’s online reach to better connect consumers to contractors offering home repairs.

HomeAdvisor, which changed its name three years ago from ServiceMagic, has spent the last three years building its new name and promoting its brand using online and offline tools, like TV commercials. But competition increased this year as Amazon, Google and Facebook all jumped into the business of connecting consumers with home-improvement contractors. A plethora of related startups are also building on this space. Read more…

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Tamara Chuang covers personal technology and local tech news for The Denver Post. She previously spent 10 years doing the same thing for The Orange County Register before taking a hiatus to move here and become a SAHM to a precocious toddler.